Albuquerque leads an Acura one-two in Petit Le Mans night practice

The critical night practice session for Motul Petit Le Mans, and the final practice before qualifying tomorrow afternoon, revealed no groundbreaking laps in most classes, but hopefully revealed valuable information to teams as well as providing some night laps to less experienced drivers.

“This race is gonna be be won at night, so it's a very important session,” said Zacharie Robichon, who two years ago clinched the GTD title at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. This year he is partnered with Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports 911 GT3 R. He added that the team was going to attempt to do a full stint on a set of tires to gauge degradation.

“We want to see what the tire is going to do because, ultimately, we feel relatively confident with the car right now and so we want to know: Will we be able to fight with the fastest cars when the time is most important?” he said.

Filipe Albuquerque posted the fastest overall time on his final lap in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global Acura ARX-06 on his final lap as the checker fell. His 1m11.296s lap just pipped fellow Acura driver Tom Blomqvist by only 0.003s. Meyer Shank Racing's Blomqvist, in turn, was only 0.076s better than Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963.

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Two of the top three GTP championship contending cars followed, each given its best time by the endurance addition drivers. Jack Aitken (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R) was fourth overall ahead of Laurens Vanthoor (No. 6 PPM 963).

A few cars went quicker in the nighttime, but none as much as the LMP2-class No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA in the hands of Mikkel Jensen, who went half-a-second quicker than teammate Scott Huffaker did in the afternoon practice. The LMP2 title combatants continued to lead as they have in each session so far, as PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports' Paul-Loup Chatin was 0.347s off Jensen. Open-wheel specialist Christian Rasmussen, the third driver in Era Motorsports No. 18 ORECA, was third-quickest in the session ahead of IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry.

Nico Varrone topped LMP3 for AWA, posting a 1m16.846s lap in the No. 17 Ligier. Gabby Chaves was next in the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier, 0.146s shy of Varrone's best. Garret Grist posted the third-best time of 1m17.015s in the No. 30 Jr II Racing Ligier.

The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 was at the top of GTD PRO and GT overall, courtesy of Mirko Bortlotti's 1m19.803s lap, which was 0.095s quicker than GTD leader Bill Auberlen in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Jules Gounon (No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG), Jack Hawksworth (No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3), Alessandro Pier Guidi (No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3)  and Ross Gunn (No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3) followed Bortolotti in GTD PRO. Julien Andlauer (No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R), Heylen, Aaron Telitz (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus), and Robby Foley (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW) completed the top five in GTD behind Auberlen.

Up next: Qualifying, beginning at 3:20 p.m EDT and broadcast live on IMSA.tv.

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